Fortunately for us, the artist was wrong in this case. Henri Fantin-Latour is one of the great painters of flowers, able to combine such disparate elements as calm amidstthe development of vegetal life. If there was any strain involved in creating these works, the artist has prevented us from seeing it. Something else we might not be aware of is the lowly status that still life painting had in the hierarchy of genres in Fantin-Latour's day, although he was keenly aware of it both as reflected in the quote given here and in the many portraits he painted, works that he hoped would secure his reputation. For a still life to command attention it needed some religious or literary reference to lift it above the ordinary, so you could say that these flowers, stripped of alljustification but their own aesthetic loveliness, are the early flowers of modern art.The Fage series on the words of the artists is a good resourcefor anyone who wants to know how artists see their own works. However, once the work is released to the world, like a bird, it may take a surprising path and who knows where it will light?

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Why The Blue Lantern ?

A blue-shaded lamp served as the starboard light for writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette's imaginary journeys after she became too frail to leave her bedroom at the Palais Royale. Her invitation, extended to all, was "Regarde!" Look, see, wonder, accept, live.

"I think of myself as being in a line of work that goes back about twenty-five thousand years. My job has been finding the cave and holding the torch. Somebody has to be around to hold the flaming branch, and make sure there are enough pigments." - Calvin Tompkins